by Steve Deal

United States Representative “Becca” Balint (D-VT) has jumped many bright lines in her short tenure, but naming sworn agents of the Department of Homeland Security “vigilantes” is one line too far. 

Balint owes Vermont and the nation an apology for her slander of federal law enforcement officers on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday. 

And of course, no, we won’t get one.

Even more importantly, Balint owes the family of slain Vermonter and Border Patrol agent David Maland an apology.   There are hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and support staff alongside state and local officers throughout Vermont, daily placing their lives on the line. 

Balint’s rabid, illiberal attempt at ascending liberal stardom on the national stage just made the lives of those public servants — and their families who wait for their return home, after long shifts of duty each day — less safe.

They won’t get an apology, either. 

This refutation of her comments is not about politics, although Balint’s entire self-serving, primrose path from Harvard to the welcoming arms of Vermonters — seemingly, her own personal career springboard — is nothing but pure personal politics and aggrandizement.  

It is about taking to task her slander of those who have taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. 

Balint’s inflammatory indictments and those of her ilk are the exact reason why federal agents must sometimes wear masks when executing their duties.  

They are the reason agents must “lie in wait”, as she accused on the House floor, to enforce the law, constrained by a web of state and local decrees that are designed to prevent them.

By calling these officers “vigilantes” in Congress, she gives not only succor but official sanction to those who would attack them. 

United States Agents already serve with a bounty on their heads, enticed by irresponsible comments exactly like Balint’s, and are more likely to be assaulted than any other element of our security structure as a direct result.

The United States Constitution, Balint might be reminded, is itself a body of law.  When the Immigration and Naturalization Act became law, with its several Congressional amendations over years, it became just as sacred, defensible, and actionable as the Constitution which enabled it.  

Officers who swear to uphold that law have sworn their lives to defend not just the parts they like or dislike, but the entirety of the law of the land.  

Of course many do not personally agree with some of the laws they did not write and must enforce, just as members of the U.S. military might not support various strategic objectives of the government.

There is no personal joy, believe me, in ending the dreams of a migrant, or in deporting someone which is likely a life sentence given the resources required for the journey, illegal or not. 

There is an emotional toll placed upon these officers and their families that political climbers like Balint have neither the desire nor the capacity to explore. 

That is the price of national sovereignty, and it isn’t always fair or inspiring, and it certainly is not particularly remunerative.

Those sworn to defend the Constitution don’t get to choose what they defend, unlike their Representatives, who have ample and endless choice in the weapons of words they deploy.  

Those sworn to defend the Constitution have no recourse to attacks on their personal safety by such politicians.  Or attacks on their families.

But it is that very Constitution which enables Americans to govern themselves. Balint seems to have forgotten this most basic attribute of our representative democracy: that the laws made by the people of the United States must be faithfully executed, that they are subject to judicial review when properly challenged, and if they should be changed, must be changed only by the very body in which she temporarily sits.

By all means, Representative Balint, use your elected office to change immigration law to the utmost of your ability.  Your elite education earned outside of the Green Mountain State has prepared you well for this task.  

The United States needs the evolution of law not only in immigration, but in every avenue of American life to make it as secure and as happy as we can make it for the greatest number possible.  Vermont is now a soft target for illegal and criminal behavior largely as a result of defunding public safety and making law enforcement officers less welcome and less safe. 

Turn your attention and talents toward the safety and security of your constituents.  Help make the state less dependent upon Federal grants and aid.  Bring self-sustaining business and legal migration to support meaningful ideas and products. 

There are many answers to what our lone U.S. Representative wants to accomplish, or should want on behalf of all Vermonters — and those who want be Vermonters, too.

But the answer to the laws Balint abhors does not lie with inciting lawless behavior.  

That is called sedition.  

For those of us who have worn the uniform of our nation, Article 94 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) defines sedition as the “intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority… (whosoever) created, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition.”

Officers of the Department of Homeland Security do not have the protections or obligations of the UCMJ.  

Fortunately for Balint, neither do elected officials.  Although she and her peers are responsible for all law, written for our military or not.

Finally, these career law enforcement officers and support staff have no power over the prioritization of the enforcement of the law.  Each Administration instructs the members of the Executive Branch on the execution of extant law, and requests Congress to resource it accordingly.  If Congress does not resource such execution, it cannot long happen. 

There are many official recourses to changing law and budgets; imaginative and constructive means of working with colleagues of all persuasions, even in this volatile environment, to create meaningful change.

Yet I cannot recall any other elected Representative or U.S. Senator demonizing, belittling, and yes, endangering federal law enforcement officers for not enforcing immigration laws clearly on the books, even when it was in the political judgment of previous Administrations to order them to ignore such laws.

There is no apology coming for the many lines Rep. Balint seems so determined to cross.  We as citizens can only hope that those listening will not take her enticement to violence seriously.  And respecting the enforcement of law, which she herself has shown she will not, we can only act to vote for another more capable Vermont representative to take her place.

Steve Deal is a retired naval officer who also served over two years for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Vermont and Washington, D.C.  He currently resides in St. Albans Town, Vermont.